Walmart Ends Q1 As Amazon's Primary Competitor
Walmart experienced its fastest period of online sales growth in five years during Q1, giving e-commerce king Amazon a run for its money.
Walmart’s e-commerce business sold 69% more goods online in Q1, and total revenue advanced 1.4% to $117.5B, Bloomberg reports. Experts said the explosion in online sales traces back to the company’s $3.3B acquisition of Jet.com last year and Walmart’s aggressive steps to enhance its online marketplace, which now offers 50 million items as opposed to the 35 million available last quarter.
"All of a sudden, Wal-Mart is the primary competitor to Amazon, as opposed to a fragmented cluster of people," A.T. Kearney partner Greg Portal told Bloomberg.
While Walmart’s online sales growth is a Q1 success story, the company also grew U.S. same-store sales by 1.4% to narrowly beat analyst projections.
